SA men need to look for inspiration

While the South African Women will look to build on a win that kept alive their hopes in their five match T20 series against India, for their male counterparts its very much a case of finding some confidence and finding a way to re-establish themselves against a rampant Indian team.

The difference in tone between Dané van Niekerk and JP Duminy following their team’s respective performances at the Wanderers last Sunday spoke to the atmosphere in both camps. Van Niekerk’s group believe they are capable of a comeback in their series in which they are 1-2 down with two to play.

India won by seven and nine wickets respectively in the first two matches, but Van Niekerk outlined how her side created enough chances, that while the outcomes of those matches would make it seem as if India dominated, in fact South Africa were always creating chances in the field, just not taking them.

That changed last Sunday, with the likes of Lizelle Lee behind the stumps, and Sune Luus hanging on to some very good catches, and thus being able to put their Indian opponents under pressure.

Far from merely wanting to mimic Sunday’s performance Van Niekerk and coach Hilton Moreeng will demand further improvement. For all of India’s endeavour early on, the likes of Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana were allowed too many boundary balls in the first half of India’s innings.

With the bat, SA will demand a better start, even if the insurance of the big hitting Chloe Tryon is a nice weapon to have late on.

At least Van Niekerk and Co. have a good and confident base to work off of, the same can’t be said Duminy’s team.

The Men’s team’s plans with the ball are one-dimensional and it’s about time they set aside the ‘short ball’ strategy to India. This Indian team, as Bhuvneshwar Kumar stated on Sunday night, is not like others from that country that may have feared the short ball. They are a lot more proficient on the back foot and worse of all they’re expecting it from the SA bowlers.

The bouncer’s been used excessively – since about the third Test – and needs to be used more as a surprise element by the home team. It’s not a case of wondering if the South African bowlers can change, but ensuring that they must; and Ottis Gibson needs to revise the strategy and has hopefully drilled it into the bowlers to use the short ball more judiciously in the last two matches of the series.

Among the batsmen Duminy and David Miller will be under the most scrutiny in Centurion and in Cape Town, as they must now deliver performances that underscore their experience.

No place to hide

There is, as Duminy said Sunday, no place to hide, it’s front up or shut up, for those two in particular this week.

Today’s Women’s match starts at 1pm. The first ball in Men’s match will be bowled at 6pm.

Meanwhile Dale Steyn will first need to play a four-day game to prove his fitness, which means he is likely miss the first Test against Australia starting in Durban on March 1. Steyn sustained a ligament injury in his left foot during the first Test against India in January.

Proteas captain Faf du Plessis will have his first bat today after breaking a finger at the start of the ODI series and if he comes through that without hassle will captain the side at Kingsmead, while Temba Bavuma, who also fractured a finger playing for the Cape Cobras, will play a club game in Cape Town this weekend, which Moosajee said would double-up as a fitness test.

AB de Villiers who was ruled out of the T20 Internationals against India after copping a blow on his left knee, should be fit for the Durban Test, while Quinton de Kock has fully recovered from his bruised left wrist – and trained with the team yesterday – is in line for selection for the Australia series as well.